Ivan Rios-Fetchko

About

American b. 1994   —   Ivan Rios-Fetchko is a painter and writer currently living and working in Los Angeles, California, where he was raised. In 2018, he graduated from the Brown/RISD Dual-Degree program with a BFA in Painting from RISD and a BA in Comparative Literature from Brown. His capstone presentation wove together paintings about River Phoenix in "My Own Private Idaho" and Faulkner's writings about history, memory, and how they appear in the physical landscape to think about the American landscape in new ways. --- My recent work continues my struggle with American identity and how it appears in the self and the land. Having considered myself a 'landscape painter' for many years, I found myself struggling to reconcile a painterly desire for nature's open spaces with the reality of living in the urban setting of Los Angeles. While the natural landscape quietly builds up history within it, the city accumulates history in the remnants of buildings that have been torn down and rebuilt or remodeled over and over. Thinking of this accumulation, I am drawn to strip malls and murals, where change happens quickly and frequently. My interest in sunsets comes from the painterly history of them, as well as the way that they beautifully--and sadly--convey endings. Growing up as a cultural and genealogical 'mutt' in Los Angeles, I truly felt that I was at the "end of the road." The westward push that brought the United States (and untold violence with it) to the Pacific Ocean had to end somewhere: the last stop of Route 66 was where I got off to go to high school. It occurred to me that every step West was greeted with a sun setting, a day ending, a fantasy fizzling out. My paintings and, recently, oil pastel drawings have tried to deal with the contradictions that exist at the 'ends of things,' even as time and life refuse to 'end.'